First Look: Olympus FE-300

First Look: Olympus FE-300

1:59 /
May 21, 2008

The Olympus FE-300 adds some more advanced functionality to a basic 12-megapixel digital camera.

>> Hi, I'm Will Greenwald, assistant editor at cnet.com,
and this is our look at the Olympus FE-300. This is a
12-megapixel point-and-shoot camera. One of the highest
resolutions available in Olympus's point-and-shoot line
up. And it's also part of the FE series, which is
generally Olympus's simple, direct, reasonably
low-priced line of digital cameras. Now because this is
a 12-megapixel camera it's definitely not quite as
expensive as some of the lower end FEs, but [Inaudible]
all the other features. It's quite simple to use. It
has a 3X zoom lens, 2-and-a-half inch LCD. And it also
has a few improvements in this generation. Using
Olympus's TruePic III image processor, which should make
it a little faster and the images a little better
looking than previous generations. However, because
this has to deal with 12-megapixels, so it's pushing a
lot more data through it, it's still probably going to
be a bit slower than your average 7 or 8 megapixel
camera. Now previous generations of FE cameras were
almost entirely automated. You couldn't change any of
the settings. But this version has a program mode so
you can actually change settings, like ISO sensitivity
and white balance. You can't change exposure controls
like aperture and shutter, but those are high-end
features that you're not going to find on an FE camera
any time soon. It can also reach up to ISO 6400
sensitivity, so not only can you change the sensitivity
you can go really high with it. And of course when
you're shooting at levels that high for any camera
you're going experience a lot more grain than you would
from shooting at lower levels. The FE-300 puts
12-megapixel resolution in a pretty small, pocketable,
easy-to-use form factor. But if you want a bit more
style and maybe a bit higher on features, you might want
to look instead at Olympus's Stylus 1200 digital camera.
It's also 12-megapixels, but it has the Stylus series of
style-minded features, and it's also weatherproof, so it
will handle a bit more splashing than this camera. But
if you want a relatively affordable 12-megapixel camera
this might be right up your alley. I'm Will Greenwald
and the Olympus FE-300. ^M00:01:57 [ Music ]